Lebanon

2011

New
York, April 27, 2011--Responding
to restrictions and attackson its staff, Al-Jazeera has suspended its
operations inside Syria indefinitely, the Qatar-based news network told the
Committee to Protect Journalists today.

Tags:

New York, April 6, 2011--More than20
foreign journalists were told that they would have to leave Libya within 24
hours, National Public Radio said today. NPR reported that Libyan
authorities asked journalists from different international news outlets to
leave the country. The media outlets include Britain's Channel 4, CNN, Fox News,
The Independent, Italian TV, ITV, Le Figaro, Los Angeles Times,
The Times of London, NBC
News, The New York Times, RAI, RTL, and The Sunday Times of London. The government has also decided to not issue new visas for
journalists who wish to cover the unfolding conflict, NPR's Lourdes
Garcia-Navarro reported from Tripoli.

Suppression Under the Cover of National Security

By Mohamed Abdel Dayem

Relying on an extensive network of sources in the military, government, and Islamist groups, Yemeni freelance journalist Abdulelah Shaea had become a frequent and pointed critic of the administration's counterterrorism efforts. By July, President Ali Abdullah Saleh's government had enough, dispatching security agents to seize and roughly interrogate Shaea for several hours about his reporting.

Tags:

Top Developments
• Tensions rise, media polarized as U.N. special tribunal closes in on indictments.
• Technology bill includes several provisions that could restrict press freedom.

Key Statistic
0: Arrests made in the murders of two journalists and a bomb attack against a third journalist in 2005.

Political tensions grew sharply in late year as the U.N.-sponsored Special Tribunal for Lebanon drew closer to issuing indictments in the 2005 assassination of Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri. In November, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) aired a documentary--based on what it described as tribunal sources and documents--that said investigators had uncovered evidence against members of Hezbollah, the Shiite paramilitary and political group with ties to Iran and Syria. The potential for indictments against Hezbollah members raised fears of sectarian violence and the collapse of a coalition government in which Hezbollah held a strong minority bloc. In November, the tribunal revised its rules on staging trials in absentia, apparently reflecting concerns that it may be unable to secure the arrests of the named suspects.

New York, January 25, 2011--Lebanese protesters today set
fire to an Al-Jazeera van and menaced a reporting crew covering a demonstration
in Tripoli in support of the ousted prime minister, Saad al-Hariri.